Improvement in self-sealing preserve-vessels



W. J. STEVENSON.

Fruit Jar.

Patented May 27, 1856.

Fig.1.

UNITED STATES PATENT FFIC-Ee \V. J. STEVENSON, OF NEWV YORK, N. Y.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 14.974, dated May 27, 1856.

To aZZ whom, it mayconcern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM J. STEVENSON, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Self Sealing Preserving Vessels; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same,,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a vertical section of the neck and mouth of a bottle and its cap or stopper constructed according to my vinvention. Fig. 2 is a top View of the same. Fig. 3 is a section of a modification of the cap or stopper.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

This invention consists inan improvement for the purpose of effecting successfully the hermetical sealing of the canby the action of atmospheric pressure on the cap or stopper.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

To carry out my invention, I construct the bottle, jar, or other vessel with a rather deep mouth, a a, and with a suddenly-contracted neck, a n, at the bottom of the said mouth, to

' form a flat, or nearly fiat, shoulder, b b, as

shown in Fig. 1, to form a bearing for a packing-ring, c c, of india-rubber or other soft or yielding substance that is impervious to air, whose exterior is of a size to fit within the interior of the mouth (tit, and its interior about the size of the interior of the neck n a; and I generally construct the cap or stopper, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, of a disk, 6, of tinplate larger than the neck n n of the vessel, but considerably smaller than the mouth a a, and attach to the upper side of said disk, by soldering or otherwise, a second piece, f, of tin-plate or other metal of the form shown in Fig. 2, or of other form, which will leave three or more guide-pieces, d d d, overhanging the edges of the disk 6, and touching, or nearly touching, the interior of the mouth of the bottle, substantially as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and thus keep the disk concentric, or nearly so, within the mouth and over the neck of the vessel, making the guide-pieces cl d d, which overhang the edges of the disk, stand so .far above the disk 6, as shown in Fig. 1, as to allow the disk to embed itself in the india-rubber or other ring a 0, without allowing the guide-pieces to touch it.

Instead of making the cap or stopper of two pieces of metal, as above described, it may be made of a single piece of metal stamped or otherwise bent to give its transverse section the form shown in Fig. 3, making a perfect disk, 6, at the bottom, as shown in Fig. 1, and suitable raised guide-pieces, d d, from the same piece of metal.

To apply the cap after filling the vessel, the india-rubber ring 0 is applied to the shoulder I) b, and the cap or stopper is placed within the mouth of the vessel, on the top of the said ring. The bottle or other vessel is placed in a hot bath or boiler, and the temperature of its contents raised to such a degree as to generate steam and expel the air. The vessel is then cooled to condense the steam,which pro duces a partial vacuum within it and causes the pressure of the atmosphere, acting on the outside of the cap, to force the same down and embed it into the ring 0 o.

i To apply the cap or stopper in an easy manner, I generally attach to the mouth of the Vessel an apparatus which allows the cap to act as a valve during the generation of the steam to produce'the vacuum; but as this is not indispensable, and forms the subject-matter of another invention, I will not here describe it.

I am aware that it has been before proposed to apply a metal cap to rest upon a packingring placed around the mouth of a vessel and to be closed by atmospheric pressure; but heretofore no proper means have been employed of at once providing for the placing of the cap exactly in its proper position to allow it to have an equal width of bearing all around the packing-ring and to cause it to embed the whole of its edge equally therein. In my invention the guide-pieces d d d compel the cap, when dropped into the mouth of the vessel upon the packingring, to find an equal width of bearing and embed itself equally all round, and, the guide-pieces being raised above the cap, do not interfere with the embedding of the edge of the cap in the packing, as they would if in the same plane with the edge, and the whole of the cap, being below the top of the mouth, is protected from being knocked off sidewise. The embedding of the edge of shoulder, I claim the cap 6, made with its bearing part smaller than the exterior of the ring, and with raised guide-pieces d d d, which keep it in place in the mouth, so as to cause it to get Iwill'proce'ed to state what I claim and desire an equal Width of bearing all round the ring, to secure by Letters Patent but do not prevent the necessary embedding of I do not claim the sealing of vessels by a I the edge of the bearing part of the cap in the packing-ring and a cap which is held down by packing, substantially as herein described.

the cap is very important, and unless the disk 0 be smaller than the packing-ring it is impossible to make a hermetical seal. 1

Having thus fully described my invention,

atmosphericpressure; but in combination with i WV. J. STEVENSON. the mouth a of the vessel constructed with a \Vitnesses: shoulder, b, at some distance from its entrance, JAMEs F. BUOKLEY,

and the packing-ring c, resting on the said TM. TUSCH. 

